Lack of Awareness to Blame for TV Everywhere’s Low Adoption
TV Everywhere—a streaming service that allows cable subscribers to access a wealth of content from any Internet-enabled device—is the pay-TV industry’s answer to gaining back subscribers who were taken over by the likes of OTT providers such as Netflix and Hulu Plus.
While there have been some major breakthroughs in the TV Everywhere space as of late— a number of technical hurdles have been solved and monetization is greatly improving as providers have found a way to target digital ads—TV Everywhere still remains a work in progress. This is mainly due to a lack of awareness by the general populace.
Believe it or not, even pay-TV subscribers are unaware that their service provider offers TV Everywhere services, and those who are aware of it have a poor understanding of its availability and benefits. In fact, an astounding 82 percent of pay-TV consumers are unfamiliar with the concept of TV Everywhere, according to research from RAMP. Additional research from Viacom found that 17 percent of users heard about TV Everywhere from an ad on TV, and 16 percent were made aware by a spouse or partner.
Judging by these statistics, it’s clear that the industry has a marketing problem on its hands. Pay-TV providers aren’t doing a good enough job in promoting their TV Everywhere services or educating users, which is disheartening because those subscribers who use TV Everywhere actually enjoy it. According to the aforementioned research from Viacom, 98 percent of users say TV Everywhere adds value to their pay-TV subscription, with 67 percent saying it adds “a lot” of value.
The solution is simple: Providers must ramp up their marketing efforts to generate awareness and educate consumers about their TV Everywhere services. After all, you can’t expect users to buy into something that they don’t even know exists.